WEDU loses a leader and the Palladium loses a friend with the passing of Susan Howarth

For the past 10 years the Palladium has enjoyed a successful partnership with Tampa Bay’s public television station, WEDU. First with Dick Lobo at the helm, and when he retired, his successor Susan Howarth continued the relationship without missing a beat.

She went out of her way to befriend us and did a tremendous job leading the station through some challenging times.

Everyone here was saddened to hear about Susan’s passing on Sept. 5. She was 66. The cause was cancer. We send our sympathy and best wishes to her family and her staff at WEDU.

Tampa Bay Times published a front-page obit and I’ve excerpted part of it here. To read the full article, just follow this link.

By Paul Guzzo/Tampa Bay Times

During her eight years running WEDU, Howarth navigated the addition of two new channels, making the public broadcasting station the first in the nation to operate six channels.

Susan Howarth

What’s more, she led an expansion of programming at WEDU — including Emmy-winning original series and documentaries — and the acquisition of shows from WUSF-TV when West Central Florida’s other PBS affiliate left the air in 2017.

And it was Howarth who pushed WEDU to tackle homelessness, veteran’s issues and race relations by spotlighting organizations working locally to improve them.

“She said in a lot of markets, it is not uncommon for PBS to be seen as the nonprofit arm of the media world,” said Jack Conely, WEDU’s interim president and chief executive. “She wanted to change that to the concept that we are the media arm of the nonprofit world.”